About

For over three decades, Michael Niemann has been interested in the sites where ordinary people’s lives and global processes intersect. He’s drunk umqombothi in a shack outside Cape Town, interviewed Morgan Tsvangirai, former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, when he was still a trade union leader, and seen Eduardo Mondlane’s dorm room at Northwestern University, faithfully recreated at the Museum of the Revolution in Maputo. Along the way, he has helped students of all ages and backgrounds to understand their role in constructing the world in which they live and to take this role seriously.

In addition to teaching, Michael has pursued these interests through writing—fiction and non-fiction.

His thriller Legitimate Business, featuring UN investigator Valentin Vermeulen and originally published in 2014, will be republished by Coffeetown Press on March 1, 2017. The second Valentin Vermeulen thriller, Illicit Trade, will follow suit on March 15, 2017. His short stories have appeared in Vengeance, the 2012 Mystery Writers of America anthology edited by Lee Child, and Mysterical-E. An earlier novel, Lincoln Road, takes the reader on a wild ride through Durban, South Africa. It’s available as a free download. The third Vermeulen thriller, tentatively entitled The Grab, is currently in the revision stage.